Tuesday, March 15, 2011

Books for Teaching/Learning Government


I recently read the book, "10 Books Every Conservative Must Read: Plus Four Not to Miss and One Impostor" by Benjamin Wiker, Ph.D. Dr. Wiker presents a book list that would be worthy reads for those pursing further study in government. I appreciated his list of four extra reads-which are fictional literature-that portray the values of conservatism. One book shows women embracing the role of marriage and nurturing and another book shows men acting in courage to protect their family and their lands. The correlation between living strong moral values and having limited government were intertwined. I understood more deeply the importance of moral character in public life. We have slipped from this.

With each book he presents a short biography on the author, information about the work itself that he choose and why the author's message should still be impactful today. Dr. Wiker's writing may provide help as a mentor of sorts to wade through difficult readings. His thoughts were particularly helpful to me recently as I reread "The Abolition of Man." Perhaps you will find this list helpful. Here is his book list:
  1. "The Politics" by Aristotle
  2. "Orthodoxy" by Gilbert Keith Chesterton
  3. "The New Science of Politics" by Eric Voegelin
  4. "The Abolition of Man" by C.S. Lewis
  5. "Reflections on the Revolution in France" by Edmund Burke
  6. "Democracy in America" by Alexis de Tocqueville
  7. "The Federalist Papers" by Hamilton, Madison, Jay
  8. "The Anti-Federalist"
  9. "The Servile State" by Hilaire Belloc
  10. "The Road to Serfdom" by Friedrich August Von Hayek
Here are is four not to miss:
  1. "The Tempest" by Shakespeare
  2. "Sense and Sensibility" by Jane Austen
  3. "The Lord of the Rings" trilogy by J.R.R. Tolkien
  4. "The Jerusalem Bible"
I will let you discover his imposter for yourselves. He makes a great case against its use to teach conservatism. Besides the fact that is devoid of all moral codes.

3 comments:

Tamsyn Spackman said...

Wow. I am very interested in government and I thought that I was well read. The only one on this list that I have read is Lord of the Rings, although many of the others are in our personal library. What a blessing it is that there is always room for improvement!

Amy said...

I'll venture a guess that the impostor is Atlas Shrugged.

St Harris said...

@ Amy.

Ding. Ding. Ding. You win.

Although I admit I have a small morbid fasination with the book.